Pride
by Guardian's Blade
Summary: What are friends for if not to help you get the girl of your dreams and teach your team an important lesson. To bad all Sasuke wanted was to get his box back before it was to late. Takes place in AU. Adult Rookie 9. Good Sasuke. Friendship / Humor. Rated T for potential swearing. One sided NaruSaku. NO YAOI!


Sasuke jumped through the trees at an impressive speed, his onyx colored eyes remained fixated on the path ahead, knowing the very likely chance of an enemy ambush lying somewhere ahead.

 _Whistle_

Sasuke's eyes barely widened as he landed on a tree limb only to jump backward, narrowly avoiding 2 kunai as they struck the position he had just been at less than a second earlier. Cursing under his breath as he saw the explosive notes attached to the kunai, Sasuke only had mere moments to escape the blast radius before they detonated.

Thinking quickly, Sasuke landed on a tree branch only to propel himself to the distant ground below. His descent was littered with debris as the explosive notes detonated, causing several pieces of wood to fall around the Uchiha as he landed inside a small clearing.

The forest Sasuke found himself in was filled with giant tree's and surrounded by thick brush making it difficult to see anything past the small clearing; a perfect environment to launch a sneak attack. For a moment Sasuke considered activating his sharingan but quickly decided against it. His pride wouldn't let him use his sharingan against an opponent such as this.

Without warning several shuriken suddenly shot out from bushes to Sasuke's left, as the pieces of metal rapidly spun towards their target the 26 year old Uchiha almost gave a ghost of a smirk. He finally had a target.

Sasuke began forming hand signs faster than the human eye could follow as he easily sidestepped the incoming shuriken and unleashed his technique. **Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu!**

A shadow jumped out of the bush moments before it was consumed by a giant dragon of fire. No sooner had the shadow landed than it had unleashed a jutsu of its own **. Earth Style: Missile of the Eastern Sage!**

The shadow smashed his hands against the ground as a massive wall of Earth suddenly rose in front of him and from that wall several large, pointed pieces of rock launched towards Sasuke. The Uchiha wasted no time in jumping back to evade the attack, only to have more missiles launched at him as soon as he did so.

"Tch." Sasuke landed and quickly formed new hand signs as lightning chakra enveloped his arm.

" **Chidori**!" Sasuke cried as his he charged several missiles head on, easily dodging each of them before striking the wall itself; causing it to crumble and break apart under the power of his signature attack. As the wall crumbled to dust, it revealed a teenage boy with dirty red hair on the ground behind it.

"Crap!" The boy shouted as he jumped back several feet to put distance between himself and the famed Uchiha.

"Give up." Sasuke coldly stated. He wasn't in the mood to play games and was already running out of time as it was.

"You can give up" The boy said as he started going through hand signs for a jutsu that Sasuke knew so well that he didn't even need his Sharingan to tell him what it was.. "on me" the boy hit the last hand sign as nearly a dozen copies of himself suddenly materialized into existence surrounding Sasuke. "giving up!" The boy and his clones charged Sasuke who closed his eyes but remained motionless.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Do you think Ru's alright?" A teenage girl with black hair asked as she ran through the forest, a large black box with the Uchiha Crest on its front rested in her arms.

"What kind of question is that? Of course he is!" A boy with blond hair responded as he ran just behind the girl, he turned his head looking back every now and then to ensure they weren't being followed.

"But Kota that was Sasuke Uchiha, there's no way Ru can take him on alone." The girl said, her voice thick with worry.

"Ru might be an idiot at times but he's a genus when it comes to fighting people on the fly, besides it isn't like he has to beat Sasuke." Kota attempted to assure his teammate. "All he has to do is hold him off until we deliver the package and complete the mission." The confidence in his voice seemed to sooth the girl's worries somewhat.

"M-maybe you're right." The girl said as she began to feel more confident as well, after all it isn't like Ru would be stupid enough to fight someone like Sasuke head on or anything.

"I know I am Kira, besides it's like sensei always says" Kota said cracking a smile. "an Uchiha is nothing without their sharingan."

Before Kira could respond, another voice spoke first. A voice that stopped both teenagers in their tracks. "Is that what that idiot says?"

"N-no way!" Kira said as she skidded to a halt and began stumbling backwards while holding the box close to her chest. Her eyes were wide with fear as she looked at the man standing several feet in front of her, a man named Sasuke Uchiha.

"How did yo-"

"You have something of mine." Sasuke said interrupting Kota while taking a single step forward. "I want it back."

Drawing a kunai and moving in between Kira and Sasuke, Kota got into a defensive stance before giving Kira a sideways glance.

"Kira, get the package to the rendezvous point. I'll hold Mr. Dry eyes off until you can get away."

"Hn" Sasuke said upon hearing the nickname.

"But Kota-"

"No buts!" Kota yelled. "We have to accomplish this mission, we've come too far to turn back now. Besides." Kota smirked at Sasuke. "I have a few tricks of my own that I've been wanting to try out for a while now. Now hurry up and get out of here!"

"R-right, be careful Kota." Kira said as she ran around Sasuke, who remained motionless, as she continued to the rendezvous point.

"Looks like it's just you and me now, eh Ukreya?" Kota said as he opened his free hand and began to circle the motionless Uchiha.

"Your insults are as bad as your teachers." Sasuke said closing his eyes.

"Yeah? Well don't worry you won't have to deal with them for long." Kota said as energy began to flow around his open hand forming a small blue sphere. "This shouldn't take longer than 3 minutes."

"I can't give you 3 minutes." Sasuke said as he finally moved to draw his sword from its sheath. "I'll end it in less than 1."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kira's breath was ragged as she pushed her body to its limits. She couldn't let Kota and Ru's sacrifices be in vain, she had to make it to the rendezvous point and complete the mission.

"Almost there." Kira breathed out, she could see the sunlight through the trees. She was almost out of the forest, almost safe.

Kira nearly collapsed as she finally exited the forest and into a large clearing. The clearing was barren of trees except for one lone oak tree in the center.

Kira wearily made her way to the tree, as she approached she noticed a man, with short blond hair and an orange jacket, laying on top of a tree branch, reading a book. Kira's face brightened and she ran with energy she didn't even know she had as she sprinted towards the man in the tree.

"Sensei! Sensei, over here!" Kira yelled as she ran, not noticing the rapidly approaching shadow behind her.

"Kira?" The blond headed man questioned with a yawn as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "Has it been an hour already?"

"Yes sensei." Kira said excited as stopped several feet in front of the tree and held out her arms towards her sensei. "Look, I brought the box."

Before Kira could react a shadow quickly passed by her, grabbed the box, and stood between her and the tree. It happened so fast, she didn't even notice the box was gone until several seconds later.

"Huh?" Kira questioned as she noticed her empty hands, and a few moments later the back of a familiar black cape worn by Sasuke Uchiha who now stood between her and the tree her sensei was in.

"Now, now Sasuke don't be a sore loser. You lost fair and square."

" _That can't be right_." Kira thought. " _Sensei sounded like he was_ -"Kira turned her head to the right and nearly jumped at seeing her sensei suddenly right next to her, the black box safely tucked under his left arm.

"Hn." Sasuke said turning around, his left hand now holding her teacher's book.

" _But when did he get sensei's book_?" Kira thought as she watched the two grown shinobi stare each other down, one with a look of amusement and the other cool indifference.

"I didn't lose anything, you ordered your students to steal my property. That's low even for you Naruto."

"Hey it was for a good cause." Naruto offered.

"I highly doubt that dobe." Sasuke said narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Kira!"

Kira turned around toward the voice calling her name, she smiled upon seeing both Ru and Kota running towards her.

"Ru! Kota! You're alright!" Kira shouted as she met her teammates halfway.

"Of course I am, I am the next ANBU commander of Konoha after all." Ru said as closed his eyes and crossed his arms in a failed attempt to look cool.

"Yeah right." Kota playfully scoffed. "And I'm the next Hokage."

"Better not let sensei hear you say that Kota." Kira said trying to sound serious. "Don't forget what happened when Kiba-sensei said that last time we trained with squad 2."

"Yeah the teachers' got more fighting in than the 6 of us did combined!" Ru said laughing.

"Hey Kota what happened to the jacket you had on earlier." Kira asked, noticing the absence of her teammate's favorite brown jacket.

"Sasuke- _sensei"_ Kota spat. "Pinned me 9 feet up a tree with his sword, I had to slide out of my jacket to get down in time to make it back here." Kota said fuming at the loss of his favorite coat.

"Oh yeah?" Ru said with a frown. "At least he didn't drag you into the ground with only your head sticking up. It took me forever to dig myself out."

"Brings back memories, doesn't it teme." Naruto said as he and Sasuke watched his team interact from the tree.

"The answer is still no, Naruto." Sasuke said coldly

"Come on teme." Naruto said looking at Sasuke. "You've been a jounin for nearly 6 years now, and you're the only one of the Rookie 9 not to take on a genin team yet. Besides it isn't like you don't have a lot of things to teach, and you've got Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, and I backing you up if the council starts anything. Why don't you at least give it a try?"

"I don't teach." Sasuke replied

"Teaching kids is easy" Naruto lied as he placed an arm around Sasuke's neck. "I've been teaching for over 5 months now and doing great. Now what does that tell you?"

"Our village is doomed."

"Don't pretend you didn't have fun chasing my kids through the forest Uchiha." Naruto said knowingly. "We both know you could have caught them in a few seconds if you had really wanted to."

"What's your point dobe?"

"My point" Naruto said raising a finger. "Is that you enjoyed chasing them, you wanted to let them run as long as they could even if it meant losing that precious black box of yours. Or are you telling me that you didn't feel anything when they didn't give up, didn't feel even the slightest bit of emotion at seeing them continue with their mission despite overwhelming odds, at seeing them grow up right before your eyes if only for a moment?"

"What are you getting for this?" Sasuke said narrowing his eyes at the blond.

"W-what, what are you talking about teme?" Naruto slightly stuttered, suddenly looking slightly nervous.

"What are you getting for trying to convince me to become a Jonin sensei, and who is giving it to you."

Naruto looked back to his Genin team, who were still conversing amongst themselves out of earshot, before giving Sasuke a fox like grin and speaking in barely subdued excitement. "A hot date with Sakura=chan."

"Hot date?" Sasuke questioned, his left eyebrow raising only slightly.

"Yeah she told me I could buy her some ramen at Ichiraku tonight and everything if I convinced you to take the job." Naruto said, his smile getting even bigger.

"Idiot" Sasuke said, only Naruto would think taking a girl out for ramen was a hot date.

"So what do you say teme?" Naruto said looking excited. "You'll have fun, help train the next generation, and give me the chance to get with the girl I've been dreaming about since the academy."

Sasuke remained silent.

"Come on, use that heart of yours for something other than blood storage for once." Naruto nearly begged.

Several more seconds passed before Sasuke gave a slight sigh. "If it means keeping you and your team away from my belongings, then I'll consider it."

Naruto, knowing that was the best he could hope for, nodded. "Thanks teme, I'll be sure to name mine and Sakura's first kid after you."

"Hn."

"Alright team fall in!" Naruto yelled as his team stopped talking and ran to line up in front of the 2 Jonin.

"First things first, since you completed the mission successfully, as promised I'm going to enter you guys into the upcoming Chunin exams." Naruto said, causing his team to begin cheering. They had only been a Genin team for 5 months so already being entered into the Chunin exams was a very big thing to them.

"Alright, alright settle down you guys." Naruto said as he held his hand in a placating manner. "There's still one thing I want to ask each of you." Naruto waited a few seconds to make sure he had his team's attention before continuing.

"Why do you think you accomplished your mission?"

"What do you mean sensei?" Kira asked, confused as to what her sensei was asking.

"Let me put it to you a different way." Naruto said holding up a single finger. "Sasuke here is one of the strongest ninja in the Leaf Village. In fact he's almost as powerful as I am."

"Tch."

"Almost as powerful as I am" Naruto repeated. "So why is it that mere Genin managed to not only steal something from him, but also get it all the way over here without him stopping you?"

"Because you're an awesome sensei and we're an awesome team!" Ru said excitingly

"Well that's true, but not the answer I'm looking for Ru."

"You asked him to go easy on us?" Kota said with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I didn't say a word about this to Sasuke beforehand."

"He just went easy on us then." Kira finally said, looking at Naruto.

"Why would he go easy on you?" Naruto asked in response.

"Because we're kids?" Kota asked

"But why." Naruto repeated.

"Pride." Kira stated, beginning to understand what her sensei was trying to say. "His pride wouldn't let him go all out against a group of Genin."

"That's correct." Naruto said, smiling at Kira.

"Pride is a wonderful thing." Naruto said looking over his team. "As ninja we should always have pride in our friends, families, village, and ourselves; however," Naruto paused to let his words sink in. "pride can also be used as a weakness. When fighting someone we, as ninja's, believe to be weaker than us, we have a bad habit of holding back our abilities. Perhaps we think it would be a waste of effort or overkill to use a powerful technique to finish off a weak target. Perhaps we actually want a challenge so we purposely restrict ourselves to better match up against our opponents. Whatever the reason may be, the fact remains that ninja often allow their pride to influence them in battle and it is one of the main causes of deaths in the field."

"What do you mean sensei?" Ru asked, still unsure about what his sensei was getting at.

"I've known countless shinobi throughout my life." Naruto said. "Many of whom were very strong and skilled, but were killed or seriously wounded by ninja far weaker than they were only because they didn't try and end the fight early on. They waited and engaged the enemy on a more level playing field instead of taking advantage of opportunities to end the fight quickly. By not taking advantage of opportunities to end the fight quickly ninja often place their lives and the success of their mission in jeopardy."

"But if we used our strongest techniques on every shinobi we come across, wouldn't we run out of chakra?" Kota asked

"That's true Kota." Naruto nodded his head. "and I'm not saying to use something….say the shadow clone jutsu… against every enemy you come across. That wouldn't be a good strategy at all because your enemy would eventually learn how to counter your technique, and you'd rapidly deplete your chakra reserves in no time flat."

"Tch." Sasuke cut in.

"What I'm trying to say is to think before you act. If you're on a mission that is about to be completed and you're up against a single enemy; don't be afraid to take him out with a little more effort than necessary if it means ending the fight quickly. Don't take risks when you don't need to, don't go into a fight thinking you've already won because your opponent looks weak, and don't let your pride get you killed." Naruto said as he looked at each member of his team before continuing. "The Chunin exams will be filled with ninja from across the known world. Some of these ninja may be weaker than others, many will feign weakness to lure you into a false sense of security in order to kill you faster. Don't let them, treat every enemy you come across as a serious threat and fight them in the safest, most effective way you can. If you fight smart and stick together then I have no doubt that you'll conquer the Chunin Exams for sure." Naruto finished, while silently thanking Kakashi-sensei for running him through that crash course on lecturing 6 months ago.

"But I still have one more question sensei." Kira said raising her hand.

Naruto nodded his head for Kira to continue.

"I understand why you wanted us to fight Sasuke-Sensei, since his pride would force him to hold back, but what's so important about Sasuke-sensei's box? Why was it so important that we take that one item?" Kira asked innocently.

"Yeah I've been wondering the same thing." Ru said, exited to finally know what the big secret was.

"Me to." Kota said, nodding his head in agreement.

"That's a good question Kira." Naruto said, giving his student a wide grin. "You see me, Sasuke, and Sakura were once on a Genin team just like you three are now. We know each other better than we know ourselves." Naruto said as he took the box from under his arm and held it in both hands. "But there is one thing neither me nor Sakura know about Sasuke."

"What's that sensei?" Ru asked

"Ever since Sasuke got back from er…a long term mission several years ago" Naruto carefully explained. "He's kept this black box with him, and nobody –not even his closest friends- knows what's inside it. Let's just say I'm curious."

"You mean you don't even know what's inside the box?!" Ru exclaimed.

"Not a clue." Naruto replied

"So I lost my favorite jacket just to satisfy your curiosity?" Kota nearly yelled, more than a little upset over the situation.

Naruto gave Kota a lopsided grin. "Yeah, kinda" Naruto held the box and moved to open it. "But that's beside the point."

"Naruto." Sasuke warned

Naruto looked at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye "Sorry Teme, but it's time to see what you've been hiding for so long." Naruto said as he moved to open the box.

END CHAPTER

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the evil cliffhanger everyone, I couldn't resist. I might post the 2nd, and last, chapter in a week or so to wrap the story up. I gotta warn you, it'll be funny. I should also, hopefully, be posting the next chapter of Legend of Naruto Namikaze this week as well. Anyway that's about it, I'll post some bonus information about this chapter after the AU in case ya'll are interested in it. Other than please remember to read, review and favorite! I hope ya'll enjoyed the story and have a great night.

BONUS INFORMATION:

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are all 26 years old in this story. None of the Rookie 9 are married/ dating. All of the Rookie 9 have their own Genin teams already except for Sasuke.

Kakashi is Hokage during the time this story takes place.

The cloths Sasuke and Naruto are wearing in this story are the same ones they wear in Boruto the Movie (minus Sasuke losing one arm and Naruto's Hokage outfit). I haven't seen the movie but the cloths looked pretty cool.

The reason Sasuke didn't want to activate his sharingan was because he was too proud to use so much power against mere children, and to make the fight slightly more difficult he purposely fought both Kota and Ru with his eyes closed.

The book that Naruto is reading is the first book Jiraiya ever wrote, the main character of that book is also named Naruto


End file.
